• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Discrimination / Harassment

Always check a manager’s history of discipline

08/09/2016
When it comes to retaliation, pay attention to how managers have disciplined in the past. Before approving a recommendation for discharge, you should check that history.

Employer gets to choose the ADA accommodation

08/09/2016
Employees don’t call the shots when it comes to picking a reasonable disability accommodation. They can certainly make suggestions, but the ADA leaves the final decision to employers. As long as the chosen accommodation is reasonable, it complies with the law.

Not-so-silent workers win harassment award

08/08/2016
Some supervisors seem to think they can get away with mistreating low-paid workers who have few employment options. Increasingly, that confidence is misplaced.

Comments about employee’s age don’t always add up to discrimination

08/04/2016
When employees say stupid things, take some small comfort: Not every stray comment will be grounds for a successful lawsuit.

EEOC settles San Jose national origin suit for $40,000

07/22/2016
East San Jose-based Peters’ Bakery has agreed to settle charges the bakery’s owner verbally abused and harassed a Latina employee because of her national origin.

Jennie-O pays almost $500,000 to settle gender bias claims

07/22/2016
The Jennie-O Turkey Store company—now owned by Hormel Foods but founded and still based in Willmar—has agreed to hire 53 women from a pool of previously rejected applicants.

Gay coaches’ exit bringing more fallout to UM Duluth

07/22/2016
A former director of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender services at the University of Minnesota Duluth is the latest ex-employee to sue the university.

Words matter at work: Is ‘fitting in’ code for bias?

07/18/2016
Worried an employee won’t fit into a department dominated by members of a protected class? Watch out! A court might decide “fitting in” is code for bias.

In harassment cases, consider transfer to cut risk of continuing liability

07/15/2016
Employees who have been sexually harassed or experienced other forms of discrimination over several years may be able to rely on the so-called continual violation doctrine to extend the period of time they have to sue.

Jealousy over affair isn’t sex discrimination

07/14/2016
Romantic relationships at work can spark all sorts of problems, from sexual harassment claims to discrimination. But not every negative consequence of a workplace romance is grounds for litigation, even if one or both paramours ends up being fired.